Vayikra

Nothing is as challenging to our faith as seeming injustice and tragedy. How does a believing person reconcile an apparently cruel world with an Omnipotent and Merciful Creator?

The idea behind the sabbatical year remains fixed in the minds and hearts of the Jewish people wherever they may live. And that basic idea is simple: that the world and all its land belongs to and is subject to the will of the Creator.

Sefer Vayikra was given during Bnei Yisrael’s period in the desert. It is therefore telling that the Torah already relates as a given fact the situation in which they are working the fields of Eretz Yisrael, suspending work during Shemitta and Yovel, and following the rules of transactions regarding real estate in the Land among other financial matters.

Looking into this week's Parshat Emor to discover the definition of Hilul HaShem [desecration of G-d's Name] in a national sense and what it means with regards to living in the Diaspora.

The two commands are respectively the prohibition against desecrating God’s name, Chillul Hashem, and the positive corollary, Kiddush Hashem, that we are commanded to sanctify God’s name. But in what sense can we sanctify or desecrate God’s name?

Democracy is a wonderful institution, but it's not infallible.

The list of holidays is repeated numerous times in the Torah. Since there are no needless repetitions in the holy text of the Torah, commentators over the ages have offered many explanations as to why this calendar is repeated so many times.

he term “zichron teruah” in describing Rosh Hashana among the holidays in our parasha, is a special term, which very likely refers to shofar blowing. But zichron, meaning remembrance, does not, at first glance, have a clear meaning.

Moses had to contend with both sides, inducing the Israelites to do teshuvah and God to exercise forgiveness. The good news is: there once was a Moses. what happens when there is no Moses?